After the three of us induced vomiting, although our bodies were still extremely weak due to mercury poisoning, we finally regained our senses, and the monkey also regained its ability to move.

I searched along the riverbank and saw water stains on the bank downstream. I said to the two of them, "It seems that after Duan Jinyan and the others came in through the secret passage, they swam out underwater, which means there is a passage down there... Monkey, can you still hold on?"

The monkey lay down by the river, took two gulps of the icy water, and stretched its limbs: "I'm fine, let's go!"

I washed the mask of the rat costume clean with water, put it back on, and was the first to dive into the river, plunging deep into the underground river.

The riverbed of this underground river was carved out of the rock. Because there is no silt, the inside is very clear, and the light from a headlamp can travel a long distance underwater.

On both sides of the riverbed, a dragon is carved towards the water inlet to prevent the earth's energy from leaking out. The underground river entrance that was dug out is exactly the sun pearl held in the mouths of the two dragons.

I grabbed the raised sections of the relief sculpture on both sides and quickly swam into the inlet.

This is a waterway with a diameter of one and a half meters. If you shine a flashlight four or five meters out, the end will be blocked by aquatic plants.

The dense aquatic plants in front of us looked like hair floating in the water, swaying with the current.

I swam to the front of the current, drew my knife from my waist, and waved it among the water plants. It quickly got tangled up. I reached out and tugged at it. These water plants were incredibly resilient. Moreover, the bottom of the pipes here had holes about the size of a thumb, specifically designed to grow water plants.

In other words, these aquatic plants were intentionally planted here to prevent people from entering the waterway.

When Song Laosan saw that my path was blocked by the water plants, he swam to my side, grabbed the water plants, and dived down, cutting the roots of the water plants with a knife.

I pulled the knife out of the water plants, ready to help, but then I noticed that the water plants in front of us had already been cut down. It seemed that Duan Jinyan and the others had encountered the same problem.

Seeing that the obstacles had been cleared, I patted Song Laosan on the shoulder, signaling him to go to the back of the group and be the first to swim into the water plants.

I measured my lung capacity six months ago, and the value was 5500. For an ordinary person who is not a professional athlete, this is already an above-average value. However, even so, I can only hold my breath underwater for about two minutes.

Because I didn't know the length of the river, I kept looking at the time on my watch while swimming.

At one minute and ten seconds, looking at the endless seaweed in front of me, I was about to wave the two of them back, otherwise if we continued swimming forward, we would never have a chance to come back.

Just as I was about to turn around and make a gesture, my palm touched something in the water plants next to me.

To avoid triggering the mechanism, I didn't dare to reach out and grab it, but instead gently parted the water plants in front of me.

As the water plants parted to the sides, a pale human face suddenly appeared in my line of sight, its wide eyes meeting mine.

Suddenly I saw a corpse underwater. My heart clenched and I exhaled the breath I had been holding.

Upon closer inspection, the body was found to have its hands and feet entangled in seaweed, and its chest pierced by a long spear with barbs.

I shone my headlamp behind the spear and discovered that it was being fired from a groove in the wall. Looking at the man's pierced chest, I saw that his skin was still elastic and no blood was flowing out, indicating that he had been dead for some time.

Most importantly, the fact that the person wasn't wearing a diving mask indicates that he swam there normally.

It was only then that I realized why these people dared to walk this path without protective equipment. This waterway was an escape route left by the craftsmen who built the tomb. Since there was no diving equipment in ancient times, the time calculated by the craftsmen must have been the distance that an ordinary person could swim without equipment.

Seeing the grotesque appearance of the corpses among the water plants, I turned to Monkey and Song Laosan, pointed to the walls on both sides, crossed my arms in front of my chest to signal them not to touch the walls, and then increased my swimming speed.

Just as I had run out of oxygen and was feeling a little dizzy, the view outside suddenly opened up, so I immediately turned off my headlamp and floated to the surface.

"Whoosh!"

The moment I breathed in the fresh air, I felt completely relaxed, floating on the water and taking deep breaths.

Monkey and Song Laosan followed closely behind and floated up.

Song Laosan had just caught his breath when he pointed to the left: "Xiao Duan, look over there!"

I looked in the direction Song Laosan was pointing, and in the darkness in the distance, the beams of several flashlights were flickering, so dazzling in the pitch-black environment.

The monkey suddenly became excited: "Flashlight beam! It must be Duan Jinyan and the others! They haven't left yet!"

This was a completely enclosed space. The three of us were soaking in the water, and apart from the flashlight beams in the distance, we couldn't see anything at all. The flashlight beams seemed to be floating in the sky, with a significant difference in height from the water's surface.

At this moment, we can see that the other side's flashlight is so clear, which means that if we turn on our flashlights, they can spot us immediately. But if we don't turn on the flashlights, the barbs that just pierced through the underwater corpse are still vivid in my mind. If we swim over in the dark, and there are any traps or hidden weapons in the water, we will be in serious trouble.

"boom!"

Just as I was thinking about how to deal with it, a burst of fire suddenly appeared over there, followed by an explosion.

I was startled by the sound. I floated on the surface of the water for a while and saw the flashlight beams flicker for a moment before disappearing completely.

"They must have blasted a tunnel and are following me. We need to swim across as quickly as possible!"

Seeing the flashlight beam disappear in the distance, I quickly turned on my headlamp, plunged into the water to check, and then swam to the front, avoiding the water plants along the way.

Duan Jinyan and his group were on an island.

Or rather, the place we came to was a huge cave, with only a mountain in the middle, which was submerged by water and only the top of the mountain remained.

Moreover, I discovered that this cave was not naturally formed; at the very least, it was an artificial cave that was expanded to this size through excavation.

Inside the cave is a huge lake, with a pitch-black sky above, and a grand hall built on a small island in the middle.

Outside the main hall, there are two bronze qilins, each ten feet tall, and above the hall gate hangs a plaque with four gilded characters: "Diligent in Governance and Kind to the Virtuous".

The moment I saw this plaque, I realized that we had found the main burial chamber of the Ze King's Tomb.

Or rather, "Ze Wang Tomb" is just what we call this place, while Hu Sha Hu, having exhausted his wealth during his lifetime, has transformed his tomb into a temple in the underworld!